THE Ohio State University Buckeyes thrashed the University of Oregon Ducks in Monday’s inaugural college football playoff championship.
Buckeyes fans are rightfully pleased with the championship. So are Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) shareholders and that is good news for the PowerShares Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment Portfolio (NYSEArca: PEJ).
In a volatile Tuesday tape, shares of Walt Disney, which have more than tripled over the past five years, hit an all-time high. With a weight of just under 5% in the $144.9 million PEJ, Disney ebullience was enough to lift the ETF to its own all-time high today. PEJ is one of just 25 ETFs to hit record highs Tuesday as of this writing.
California-based Disney, one of just 11 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to gain at least 20% over the past 12 months, is winning like Charlie Sheen and Ohio State because the company owns ESPN, which owns the broadcast rights for the college football playoff.
“ESPN paid a reported $7.3 billion for the rights to air the college playoffs over the next 12 years. There are also reports that ESPN received up to $1 million per ad that aired during the championship game. The semi-final games leading up to the national title game both brought in record-breaking ratings. Oregon’s victory over Florida State and Ohio State’s win over Alabama were both watched by more than 28 million people each,” reports Joe Belfiglio for Yahoo Finance.
Featuring Disney as its fifth-largest holding on a day like today is obviously a positive for PEJ, but there is more to the ETF’s story. PEJ targets U.S. leisure and entertainment companies, such as resorts, hotels, cruises and restaurants, and also weights components based on price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value. [Leisure ETF Soars]
Consumer discretionary ETFs are sensitive to oil prices, as highlighted by PEJ’s nearly 17% gain over the past 90 days while the United States Oil Fund (NYSEArca: USO) has shed 43.5% over the same period. That underscores the fact PEJ’s recent returns have been driven by much more than Mickey Mouse.
Unlike traditional, cap-weighted discretionary ETFs, PEJ features notable allocations to Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE: RCL) and Carnival (NYSE: CCL), two names that are extremely sensitive to oil fluctuations. Those two stocks, which combine for 10% of PEJ’s weight, are up 46.6% and 32.3%, respectively, over the past 90 days.
There are more reasons to consider PEJ, particularly if interest rates in 2015. The consumer discretionary sector has a 0.06 correlation to Treasury yields compared to -0.5 for utilities, according to J.P. Morgan data. Additionally, discretionary is expected to be one of just two sectors to show double-digit dividend growth this year. Financial services is the other. [Cyclical ETFs Could Shine in 2015]
PowerShares Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment Portfolio
